Little Britain: why the UK is no longer a superpower

[Mosaic]

Economic crisis apart, the United Kingdom is still a major player on the world stage, right? Wrong

[...]

It is not just a question of adopting a different system of taxation or limiting the ability of the commercial banks to create credit – however commendable those individual ideas may be in themselves. One hundred years of pretending to be a "big beast" have to end now. There has to be an acceptance, like that in Germany, France and Japan in 1945, that the country has hit rock bottom and needs to change. In football, this happens all the time: a new manager goes to a struggling club and proceeds to clear out the dead wood. This has never happened to the UK, and even now the country does not seem ready for the sort of cathartic moment that the defeated Axis powers had at the end of the second world war. Even now there is a belief that all will be well, that something will turn up, that Britain will muddle through. The temptation, as ever, will be to look at the events of the past decade as another occasion where disaster was averted by a whisker. The reality is different: this is the moment when the UK has to face the truth about its diminished status in the world.

• Extracted from Going South: Why Britain Will Have A Third World Economy By 2014

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2012/jun/08/why-uk-no-longer-superpower?CMP=twt_gu

[exboyfil]

1. Some historians attribute it to the loss

of India as a colony. I can't find the exact quote but it is something like England is just an island without India. For a nation of their size and population they still do pretty well in comparison to other countries. They have a better health care system than we have. They still have many fine colleges and universities. They have a vibrant banking sector (not regulated enough though - just like ours). I would have a tendency to bet on them before I would Japan after we pull out of Asia (which will happen in the next 20 years in my opinion).

[lastlib]

2. The open question is how long we can sustain our superpower status.

Given the loss of our maufacturing capacity, can we field a colossal military force far into the century? Can we sustain our national income levels by importing vastly more than we export?